Foresight
by fanaticwr1t3r
Summary: Since he first joined the Titans, Cyborg has been working to improve himself and his contributions to the team. His determination finally seems to be paying off, as he gains an amazing new ability; The ability to see the future. His new ability would end up being tested much sooner than he could have expected, and his friends' lives would end up being on the line.


**Foresight**

A Teen Titans fan-fiction

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**CHAPTER ONE:** New Tricks

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"Come on Cy! First to three wins!" yelled the green changeling.

Beast Boy had been pressuring Cyborg to spar with him for nearly a week now. This time, Cyborg was working on his T-Car in the Titans' garage, and BB had followed him down there to bug him once more.

This was Beast Boy's strategy. For the steadfast hard-headed leader, Robin often folded easily. Starfire didn't even require any pressuring, because she would go out of her way for her friend. Raven was absolutely immune to it.

It rarely worked on Cyborg, though. That was why Beast Boy was surprised when Cyborg replied…

"Sure, give me a second to put up these tools."

BB's face lit up with glee, as soon as Cy turned his head. He had to resist jumping around and celebrating. _Finally!_ He had forced Cyborg into something. Mentally, he noted that Raven was the only one left to manipulate with this strategy…

But Beast Boy's moment of devious victory wouldn't last as long as he thought.

"Just gonna warn you, I have a new upgrade that'll make me unbeatable," Cyborg said.

Once they got out on the practice course, they both put on their hi-tech shields. The shields were essentially a black metal harness worn around the wait and upper torso, which would generate a large humanoid-shaped force field around the wearer.

The team created them to be actual shields in battle, but the shields would only sustain one hit before running out of energy, which made them worthless. However, Cyborg retooled them for training, by fixing the harness with an alarm. It would signal when a hit was registered.

Cy ended up making custom harnesses for each member of the team, including the Titans East and some of their newer allies.

This provided many heroes with a perfect way to train. For example, Starfire and Beast Boy could fly around and swipe at each other, without being passive and worrying about hurting each other.

For this sparring session, Cyborg put on the harness and weakened the energy-shot in his cannon arm. Beast Boy put on his own customized harness, designed to fit his varying body size when he shifted.

So they began. Beast Boy turned into a pterodactyl, and rose up into the sky. He flew all the way up into the clouds, using the cloud cover to disguise himself. Cyborg waited patiently... almost arrogantly. His human eye flickered blue for a moment, as he stared up into the sky.

Beast Boy swooped down to Cyborg's blind side. Time almost seemed to slow down for a moment, as BB knew he had a perfect strike lined up. Then, as he closed in… Cyborg spun around quickly, and hit him square in the head with a blast.

_BZZT!_

The alarm went off, and BB's shield went down. The wide-eyed green pterodactyl morphed back into a human, and landed perfectly on the ground nearby.

"How'd you do that?" Beast Boy asked.

"Not telling," Cyborg teased.

After 15 minutes of being charged by the tower's base outlet, Beast Boy's harness was fully recharged.

They went at it again. Beast Boy turned into a cheetah, trying to out-maneuver the aim of Cyborg's cannon. On his first attempt at a dodge…

_BZZT!_

"Oh _come on_!" Beast Boy shouted, after morphing back once again.

"Almost on your third strike!" boasted Cyborg.

Another 15 minutes passed, and the harness was charged once more. Beast Boy sat silently the whole time, staring at Cyborg spitefully. BB was about to try to cheat.

It was time for his comeback…

He turned into a humming-bird and flew in a spiral around Cyborg's head. Cyborg tried spinning around to keep an eye on him, but his big body couldn't keep up. At that exact moment, Beast Boy turned into a gnat, and dove right at Cyborg's upper forehead.

He knew it wasn't a real battle move. He knew it wouldn't hurt anyone in a real fight. He just wanted to register a hit on the shield.

He was closing on the shield, when suddenly the world went spinning wildly. Cyborg smiled as he heard a tiny…

_...bzzt..._

Nearly out of thin air, Beast Boy morphed back into a human, the harness still fixed on his chest. He ended up landing on his back, staring up at Cyborg.

All he did was put his arms up and shout.

_**"WHAT?!"**_

Cyborg chuckled at this, as Beast Boy got up off the ground, and dusted himself off.

"Wh-… what kind of crazy upgrade did you get?! Can you see the future now?"

"Sort of," Cy replied."

"I can do sims in my head. It lets me know the results of what's gonna happen, before it happens. I guess you could call it foresight."

Beast Boy was left scratching his head.

"So… you can see the future now?" he asked again, as Cyborg sighed.

"Yeah, that's basically it."

"Cool, dude!" BB exclaimed, before his excitement trailed off. "Wish I hadn't been your punching bag for it, though."

"Hey, this was the first time I've ever used it in a fight. You really helped me out just now," Cyborg replied, trying to cheer him up. It worked, as Beast Boy smirked a bit.

"I guess I did..."

At that moment, Robin walked up to them. He saw them in the harnesses when he got there, and looked at both of them.

"So…" Robin began, expecting them to fill him in on how the fight went.

"He kicked my butt because of his new 'upgrade'," Beast Boy replied with a disgruntled tone.

"What new upgrade?" Robin inquired, raising an eyebrow at Cyborg.

"I can make quick calculations in battle, using split-second simulations. I haven't perfected it yet, though, so I'm not gonna push it too far," Cyborg explained, in much more detail than before.

The talk didn't go over Robin's head. He seemed very interested. After a pause, he spoke.

"No. Don't worry about pushing it too far."

Cyborg was confused at this point. "What do you mean?"

Robin went into an even longer explanation. "An ability like that has huge potential, but the only way to reach that potential is to push the boundaries as much as you can. If you're worried about it malfunctioning in battle, I understand that, but there are probably non-combat situations you can find for it."

"Yeah, what he said," Beast Boy added, trying to behave as if he knew what they were talking about.

"All-right, I'll try. Thanks, Robin," Cyborg told Robin, smirking and giving a nod. Robin nodded back, and Cyborg went on his way back up to the tower.

Left alone, Robin turned to Beast Boy.

"So, when you say he kicked your butt… How bad was it?" Robin muttered.

"Scary levels of butt-whooping," Beast Boy replied.

"Enraged Starfire level?" Robin asked further, getting a weird look from Beast Boy.

"Uh… Not like a loose cannon, like that, but… it's like he could see the future. He countered everything I tried. I couldn't get a hit on him at all, dude. It was scary."

This got Robin into thinking mode, considering the possibilities of such a move. Beast Boy told him that he was going to go ahead and get out of his gear. Robin acknowledged, and followed him back up to the Tower.

A few hours then passed. Cyborg had finished his work on the car, and hadn't heard much from his teammates. He came back upstairs, and saw everyone pretty much minding their own business in the main room.

"I'm gonna go work on my interfacing," Cy said in their general direction.

"Okay," Raven responded, being the only one that really paid any attention.

He shrugged and walked out of the room. Unknown to him, the minute the door slid shut behind him, his fellow teammates would huddle back up together and continue talking about his new ability.

In the back of his mind, he was thinking about it too. He knew it was a relatively new ability, and one he was very far from mastering. His success rate with the ability was pretty good on paper, but he still didn't feel confident in how well it would work in battle. Beast Boy is his teammate, after all. The data on his battle moves, personality, and so forth… it's all there in his head already. What about an unknown enemy, though? How would the simulations handle that?

That was Cy's train of thought, all the way until he re-entered his quarters. He sat down, and got to working on his interface.

However, as he sat there, he got a call on his communicator. "Unidentified caller", it said. That was normal for calls that came outside of the Titans communication network.

Cyborg picked up the call without hesitation. He had been working some of his old contacts for weeks, due to another pet project he was working on.

"Hey," Cyborg said, starting off the conversation.

"Yo Vic," the man on the other end responded. The man was one of Cyborg's long-time friends, William Carter. He knew him in high school, prior to his 'accident'. William ended up becoming a software engineer, and a part-time security specialist. He and Cyborg stayed close through the years, and the two often asked each other for favors.

"You been looking for a possible sentient code, right?" William asked him.

"Yeah, I have. You got any news for me?" Cyborg asked in return.

"You bet I do, man."

"There's this website online, maybe you've heard of it. 4 images dot com. It lets you upload your pictures on the web. Words' been circulating around that the site has been showing signs of sentience. Now, when I first heard about this, I thought it was bull, but a couple of big-time software companies have tried buying the site for its source code. Even got some attention from big brother," William explained.

"Wow" was all Cyborg had to say.

"Yeah. I tracked down the woman that owns the site. Miss Singleton. Veronica Singleton. Young 20-something that funded the site's development and is providing the hosting. She's got the servers based in her own house. The house is in a city close to you guys in JC. San Bernardino, to be exact. I'll be sending the exact address to you shortly."

"I really doubt she'll just let me walk right in and see the code, Willie," Cyborg replied.

"You know I've got you covered, my man!" he exclaimed, "I called her up, and told her a Titan is interested in her work. That got her excited. She wants to see you A.S.A.P."

"Huh…"

"Yeah. So, Vic, we're even now. Next time you need a favor, we're gonna get back to mutual benefits, ya dig?" William added.

"I know, I know. You take care now," Cyborg responded, hanging up the communicator. With-in a couple of minutes, the address was sent to him via text message.

At this point, he took a short rest in his specialized bed, informed Robin that he was taking a few days of down-time, and jumped in the T-Car.

He drove through the congested roads of Jump City with ease, as most drivers pulled over to let him through. In the early days, that would only happen when the public knew of some sort of danger in the city. Now, however, the Teen Titans were renowned heroes. They had saved the world. All of that meant that, when you were driving in California and you saw that iconic car in your mirrors, you let them on pass you out of respect.

That is, unless you're on the freeways of California. Once Cyborg entered that territory, he noticed that he actually had to drive like a normal person.

As he made the drive to San Bernardino, his communicator buzzed again.

"Hey. Willie?" Cyborg answered, expecting his friend again.

"You got it," William said, "And get this... I called the girl back, and _demanded _for a sample of the code to 'verify its integrity'. I told her she had to do it before you would see her. She bended pretty easily, and sent the core of it to my phone."

"Really? So now I can turn around and head home?" Cyborg asked, surprised.

"Hey, I'm not _that_ good. The code branches out into four parts, like branches from a tree. I've got the trunk, but I ain't got the branches to go with it. She made a point of that, to make sure I don't run off with the code just yet," William responded.

"You mean _we_ run off with the code, right?" Cyborg questioned, knowing his friend's shady habits.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," William said, with a chuckle. After an awkward pause, William grumbled and added, "Code's going to you in a text. Good luck, Vic."

After that, the line went dead, and Cyborg received a text that contained the central code of the "sentient website".

He pulled over on the side of the freeway, and studied it closely. Ten minutes had passed, and Cyborg's eyebrows had risen slowly over time.

The coding didn't just show signs of sentience. It showed the potential to create full-fledged artificial intelligence. To make it even more exciting, this was only when he looked at a _fifth_ of the entire sentient code.

"No wonder everyone wants their hands on this code," Cyborg whispered to himself. He put his hands back on the wheel, and pulled back onto the road.

After another 30 minutes, he ended up getting caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic. As he sat there, slowly moving forward, he heard a loud and obnoxious voice from outside his car.

There was a rough-looking man in the passenger side of a vehicle next to his, leaning out of the window and looking right at him. Cyborg rolled down the window, as the man waved at him to catch his attention.

Cyborg simply stared him down.

"Hey, Titan! I bet you're wishing you had taken the ship instead of the car!"

After that, the man and his driver both could be heard laughing their lungs out. Cyborg rolled his eyes and rolled up the window.

"_They've got a point_," Cyborg thought after a minute of silence, "_If I had used my new ability, I might have seen this coming and taken the T-Ship… Maybe Robin is right about pushing my limits outside of combat. I should try to find a way to do that soon."_

With that thought, he leaned back. He didn't need to run a simulation to see it was going to take him hours to reach his destination. He only hoped that the woman he was going to meet didn't mind dealing with a very road-weary visitor.

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**Author's Note**:

_This will be my first published fanfic in years. Due to a lot of boring life stuff, I haven't been able to dedicate my time to writing. I brainstormed ideas and put together a summary for this story though, and every time I go back to that summary, I get excited about finishing this one._

_For those of you that have liked my other stories and followed me, sorry to put you on hold for so long! I hope you end up liking this one too! :D_

_- fanaticwr1t3r_


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